On Tuesday 26 November myself and Paige of Clement Rabbit Rescue met with Pets at Home’s Head of Pets Karlien Heyrman and their welfare consultant Peter Scott to discuss our petition and urge them to stop selling rabbits

Over the last 18 months since the petition was created, we have gathered facts, figures and testimonials. For 3 hours we gave lots of examples to back this up. We pointed out that rescue centres are at bursting point, that many staff and customers are deeply affected, and of course we defended the helpless victims, exploited for profit - the rabbits.

Below are some of the things we heard during the meeting, in no particular order…

We need to see the facts.
People can lie.
If we stop selling it won't change anything, people will go elsewhere.
There's bad people everywhere.
It's not our responsibility.
We have to keep educating.
Our breeders are checked by us, the councils and the RSPCA.
We are not aware of any animals arriving sick or dead from the breeders.
If staff don't report it, we can't do anything about it.
Workshops are good. We educate children.
Our new in-store setups for rabbits (playground style) are great. They have 3 levels and plenty of space to hide.
We are reviewing the cages we sell.
We are thinking of selling a run but it will take some time.
Breeders sex the rabbits, then staff double check. Mis-sexing is only a small issue. They might not be P@H bunnies. People lie.
In the case of unwanted litters as a result of mis-sexing by our staff, we can help. We can provide another cage and some food. We give a lot. Personally I think we give too much.
The rabbits we sell are not siblings so no risk of inbreeding.
Fights in the stores are rare.
We thought of selling neutered rabbits but age is an issue.
Any issues we can take the rabbits back. We always have space to take unwanted pets.
Rabbits are not exotic pets it's only a vet classification related to drugs and vaccines.
If the population of pet rabbits was small, vaccines wouldn't be available as it would be too expensive so it's a good thing there's lots of them.
There are no sale targets for pets. Staff can refuse a sale.
People will always want pets. We want people to have pets.
Other pet shops are worse. Online sales are the real issue.
The reason we no longer sell degus is because we couldn't find good suppliers. It was a commercial decision.
Pet shops that stopped selling pets it's because they can't comply to stricter regulations. We can.
We help rescue centres. We take the surplus when they don't have space.
We do our best.
We never sell sick pets.
All rabbits carry pasteurella. It only comes out if they get stressed.
People say they got their rabbits from Pets at Home but it might not be true. Since we are well known they get confused.
We don't put animals to sleep unless it's best for them. Once treated if we can't get them adopted a store colleague takes them.
We called RWAF and they said the number of rabbits ending up in rescue has increased since the 67,000 figure of 2012. We sell more rabbits but no more end up in rescue so we are not the issue.
We are not aware of these stories you are telling us. We need facts.
Cats are complex animals too.
The rabbits in our adoption centres are sold cheap so rescues get more in donations.
30,000 signatures is not going to do anything.
All we can do is keep educating.
Staff are trained and we constantly review the training.
We are vets but not good at sexing rabbits. In fact we trust our store colleagues better so we often take the rabbits to them so they can sex them for us.
We are thinking of selling pairs only in future as it’s better for them.
We no longer microchip the rabbits because it’s too stressful for them.
Our breeders vaccinate the rabbits for VHD2 but we can’t provide vaccination certificates because some do it with Filavac and some with Eravac which doesn’t cover them for the same time. Eravac has to be done again at 10 weeks. We can’t give proofs or consistent advice to our customers.
The rabbits are not vaccinated for VHD1/Myxomatosis but we give a voucher for the customer to register with a vet. It is better to do that than vaccinate ourselves like rescues do, because the adopter might not bother registering with a vet.
Our rabbits are not checked by a vet as it would cost too much to get a vet to check all the rabbits. Our rabbits are only checked if they show signs of illness.
If someone returns an unwanted rabbit and say it’s an unneutered male, we trust them and advertise them as that. Although we're thinking of checking that in future.
Seed treats are ok since they are not main food, just treats. Some rescues give rabbits banana which is bad as well.
Lucy's Law is a scam. The sale of dogs will go underground, like drugs. Yes, we wouldn’t have a problem with selling dogs and cats because selling from pet shops means it would be monitored.
We have no plans to stop selling pets

I requested a response to the petition in writing. Nothing so far. Almost 29,000 signatures but the CEO didn’t acknowledge it. We were told he was away.

Since Pets at Home have no plans to stop selling pets, we have no plans to go away. We are not going to stop here. We won’t give up. We won’t let the rabbits down.

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Thank you for caring. 

Isabelle Rineau
@babbacampaign
www.babba.org
www.facebook.com/BabbaCampaign